Ian Wilmut Quotations

We would welcome any rules for an international agreement of any kind to prohibit this work. I think you shouldn't underestimate the difficulties of this research,

I am sure that they did make good steps forward and derive cell lines.

It is a key component of the international effort to co-operate in research rather than compete,

Successful cloning of an increasing number of species confirms the general impression that it would be possible to clone any mammalian species, including humans.

So far, no scientist has been able to specifically turn any adult stem cell population into good populations of motor-neuron cells. Remember that ALS patients tend to die within four years. Opponents of therapeutic cloning need to remember that we do not have time to waste.

I personally have still not heard a potential use of this technique, to produce a new person, that I would find ethically acceptable, ... ...on that basis, I hope that you're wrong.

If we wait until things are totally tested and analyzed in animals, it will deny some people that treatment.

I think now to contemplate using our present technique with humans would be quite inhuman,

I do believe that Hwang's laboratory achieved what they described, but then were careless.

I think the initial reason why I became interested in farming is that I wanted to be outdoors. I've always enjoyed being outdoors. And so, I looked around and when I was at high school, probably 14 or so, my parents through friends arranged for me to be able to go work on farms on the weekend.

It is not possible to think of a way of screening out effectively the most appropriate embryos, and hence, what we should expect would be late abortions -- either occurring spontaneously or being induced deliberately in the second or third trimester of pregnancy -- in order to prevent the birth of abnormal children.

The pressures for human cloning are powerful; but, although it seems likely that somebody, at some time, will attempt it, we need not assume that it will ever become a common or significant feature of human life.

Any kind of manipulation with human embryos should be prohibited.

I see nothing wrong ethically with the idea of correcting single gene defects through genetic engineering. But I am concerned about any other kind of intervention, for anything else would be an experiment, which would impose our will on future generations and take unreasonable chances with their welfare ... Thus such intervention is beyond the scope of consideration.

It is difficult to imagine a greater imposition than adding genes to future generations that changes the nature of future people.